OK here goes...

1. ball ring spanner: I made one using a piece of rectangular alum. tubing into which I tapped and screwed 2 M5 machine screws. The screws go right through the material and stick out a few mm on the other end, and those ends engage the semi-circular cut-outs on the ball ring. In the middle of the alum tubing between the 2 screws, a hole is drilled to allow the axle to stick through when engaging the ring spanner. The hole is just large enough, and when I put the ball ring spanner on, I fasten it down with an axle nut so it stays put. Remember to back off the axle nut when unscrewing the ball ring.

IMPORTANT: The ball ring has LEFT HAND THREAD! The manual is wrong!

You could try tapping the ball ring out with a hammer and screw driver. I tried that; didn't work, mostly because I was tapping in the wrong direction. So I made a spanner, and the spanner showed that no amount of force was unscrewing it. So I tried the left hand way, and presto! it came out.


I re-used all parts.

Grease is a problem. I got the best results with something called cable grease which comes out very thin from a spray can, then turns into a gel when the solvent evaporates. Everything else I tried just ran out again.

Very important: Do not make the same mistake as I and deform the ball retainers! Doing so ruined them, and no amount of fiddling could get them right again.

For your service, assuming all is OK with the gear works, don't do anything to the inner works, just remove it and set aside, leave the gel on it. It may be that all you need are new balls; they are standard size. Get rust-proof ones. Carefully pop the old ones out of their retainers, clean the latter and pop in new balls. Grease with ordinary grease and re-assemble the lot.

Work carefully with the plastic seal as it is plastic and can break.

Good luck!